Standard treatment for all wounds requires cleansing or washing to remove foreign material and to decrease bacterial contamination. Safety considerations require isolation of the wound-care-provider (first responder, nurse, physician, surgeon, assistants) from body fluids and any contaminated irrigation fluid.
Debridement is the removal of foreign matter such as dirt, glass or dead tissue, whereas irrigation is the flushing of fluid over the wound to remove smaller particles and bacteria to decrease the possibility of infection. A collection pan or receptacle is placed under the wound that is to be treated in order to collect the irrigation fluid used during the irrigation and debridement process.
It is not uncommon that during irrigation and debridement procedures that fluid can plash onto the wound-care-provider, equipment and surroundings. In other words, the collection pan placed under the wound usually will not catch all of the irrigation or wound fluids that are present during the irrigation and debridement procedure. This is of particular concern should the patient have blood-borne infection such as HIV, Hepatitis or Cytomegalovirus, thereby putting the wound-care-provider at risk of contracting an infectious disease. There are times when a patient may not be aware that they have contracted an infectious disease and hence the adoption of universal precautions has been recommended.
Therefore, there is a need for a fluid containment system that provides a barrier to the wound-care-provider to splash of contaminated irrigation fluids or body fluids. This system must contain body and irrigation fluids, as completely as possible, collect, enclosed and allow safe and complete drainage of said fluids, but yet allow freedom of movement of the wound-care-provider to be able to attend to the patients needs without undue restrictions.